[OSGeo-Edu] Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Introdution tutorials

[P Kishor]

On 2/27/07, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:
> P Kishor wrote:
> > I also believe that uploading should be made available to those who
> > many not have the resources to host their own material. However, for
> > that, OSGeo has to display a clear stance on what are willing to host,
> > mainly with regards to relevance, appropriateness, quality standards,
> > and licensing. Either that, or a disclaimer about the hosted contents
> > should be provided. There are, however, so many issues with hosting
> > content that it really makes me shudder. What if, some third party's
> > hosted binary content contains a virus and destroys the user's
> > computer? Whose liability is that? In my view, OSGeo should host only
> > the content that it produces. By "it" I mean a set of OSGeo members
> > collaborating and producing a package in a public process open to all
> > for participation, vetted properly, and given an OSGeo quality
> > assurance badge.
>
> Puneet,
>
> There are a couple of levels of hosting content.  At the lower level we
> are basically just giving the content the same level of vetting we would
> to anything we link to, and the link just happens to be to our own server.
> The next level might be where it is somehow considered primary OSGeo material
> and branded as such.
>
> For now, if you want to take a linking approach there is no compelling
> reason to apply a much higher level of vetting to material we might host
> on our own servers (presumably on download.osgeo.org).
>
> Note it is the nature of open source that binaries contain contributions
> from many parties and it is hard to be absolutely certain nothing bad could
> come of it.  I don't see any reason to be especially concerned about this
> in the context of educational materials.


well, I just wanted to be sure that there were no concerns, and since
you say there aren't any, that's what matters ;-)

Nevertheless, I could be wrong about this as well, but I think on all
other foundation websites (Apache foundation, that OSGeo is taking
cues from), individuals can't just host their own content on the
official servers. For example, Apache's website states --

"Use the links below to download the Apache HTTP Server from one of
*our* mirrors. You **must** verify the integrity of the downloaded
files using signatures downloaded from our main distribution
directory."

*our* is my emphasis; **must** is their emphasis

Both PGP keys and MD5 signatures are provided for verifying.
<http://httpd.apache.org/dev/verification.html> explains why.

-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
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